Aspies For Freedom - Offer From Autism Speaks *please read and give it some thought*

DigiModify Wrote:

I wrote a poem about pro-cure organizations. I cannot remember the whole thing, but it was scathing in a subtle way. I'm also working on a second poem called 'The Thing We Call A Cure'.

Anyway, the original poem that I wrote had this stanza in it:

'Is science defiance of human rights? No.'

Would you be willing to work with them at all

BardWolf Wrote:

morning_after Wrote:

Gareth Wrote:

Seems a horrendously traumatic way to teach it.

Ok, so I understand it is horrendous.

Forgive me, but I'm still new here. What example happens that makes it horrendous? Is it electro-shock therapy?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_behavior_analysis

Enjoy. It's not too terrible evil, depends who is the teacher. Sometime the teacher is cruel and uses negitive reforcement. I try to keep netural on this topic.

To the topic
I don't know what to think about it might blog about this but as admiral Akbar said

Well, thank you for the link

voiceoffreedom Wrote:

Only if they sign a legally binding contract with the following conditions:

1. Autism Speaks may not edit any material they receive from us
2. They may not claim association with (whatever the other party in this agreement is) when promoting positions which the pro-acceptance disagrees with.
3. they may not provide descriptions or other supplemental text degrading those in the stories we give them.
4. (whatever the other party in this agreement is) has the right to suspend this agreement at any time and mandate that Autism Speaks cease circulation of stories we provide them.

In response to points made by previous posters:
1. They are NOT going to stop their hateful agenda, so don't make your expectations to high.
2. We do not have to be concerned with giving them PR ammo.  The media all but canonizes them.  Their PR is excellent among most Americans, while we are a silenced minority.

This could be i a small step toward getting our name out.  These the contract I suggested above, I would totally support this.  As for now, I vote not sure.

I think those are conditions Nicholas has already gone over.

Thank you, though.

Ethel Wrote:

Quote:

We do not have to be concerned with giving them PR ammo. The media all but canonizes them. Their PR is excellent among most Americans, while we are a silenced minority.

"The Media" does nothing. It's not a living creature with a mind and agenda of its own. "The media" is just a bunch of people earning a living. I'm one of them.

Yet again, here's the link to How To Work With The Media, in the hope people might read it and maybe even act on it: http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthre...?tid=11630

Thanks, Ethel. That was most helpful

Well, for starters, you could send a link to this web-site or the articles on Wrong Planet to your congressperson, telling them that Autism is an issue where you would like them to look at these resources and consider what they say.

Marcia Wrote:

Thanks Ethel, that's very helpful.

Given that great chunks of Autism Speaks info keeps turning up in political statements, such as the Barak Obama statement which was recently highlighted here, I'd wondered if it might be good for us to work on a generic piece which can be adapted for local situations and which we can all send to our local elected representatives...

If the only information politicians and their researchers have to hand is from Autism Speaks, then that is what they will use.  I think what we need to do is to give them an alternative.  I thought it might be an idea to email it in the first instance, then maybe a week later to send a hard copy.  Thereafter, it could be helpful to send regular, monthly or two-monthly updates on what is happening and reminder of what AFF and related groups stand for and are doing.

That way, the next time they need to speak about or express some opinion on autism, they have more than one source to go to.  Currently it seems that Aut. Speaks is the only organisation providing easily accessible information, and that is something we need to counter.

Any thoughts on this as an idea?  Is it do-able?

andrew_w Wrote:

voiceoffreedom Wrote:

Only if they sign a legally binding contract with the following conditions:

1. Autism Speaks may not edit any material they receive from us
2. They may not claim association with (whatever the other party in this agreement is) when promoting positions which the pro-acceptance disagrees with.
3. they may not provide descriptions or other supplemental text degrading those in the stories we give them.
4. (whatever the other party in this agreement is) has the right to suspend this agreement at any time and mandate that Autism Speaks cease circulation of stories we provide them.

That sounds like a good idea to me. I voted no, but I might change my mind if they signed such a contract.

Nicholas said something about doing his video seperately.

skyblue1 Wrote:

morning_after Wrote:

I promised someone on wrongplanet that I would post this here. He had a thread going and this was the OP:

Hi everyone.

I'm Nicholas. Some of you may have read and/or listened to the interview Alex did with Alvin Keith and myself about our movie If You Could Say It In Words.

I went with Alex's group to the UN discussion on autiusm awareness this week. I got the chance to ask the panel a question and decided to address the way autistics are potrayed in major advocacy campaigns (especially by Autism Speaks). I suggested that too much time is being devoted to showing the worst moments in autie's lives while none was being spent on celebrating your achievements. I believe this contibutes to a message of pity and fear; it furthers the misconception of auties as damaged/diseased.

Suzanne Wright, the co-counder of Autism Speaks, responded with a public offer to promote positive stories on Autism Speaks' website if I provide them to her. This was, of course, right after she claimed her orgainzation is making a ton of progress to make autistics feel more accepted. She then promptly compared autistics to AIDS patients.

...sigh...

Still, they have all the money. They have all the corporate partnerships. They have the most influential lobbyists. They have the best machinery in place to influence public opinion and the use of government dollars. If there is a chance to get them to take up the right side of this issue for a change, even if its due to nothing more than public pressure, I feel like we should seize it. Helping to steer their organizatoin, with all its capabilities, in the right direction has to be better than going to war with them, right?

But I would like to get feedback from the folks here at wrongplanet on how you feel about it.

Thanks
Nicholas

Then, Alex posted the video where the question is posed to him (I also promised I would post this here)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmDzoVYAfEg[/youtube]

I would seriously value your input and your opinions. Do you think you would like to contribute?

I have always felt that they should ask the adults among us (especialy those among us with recent DX) how we survived our lives
[/quote]

Well, that would certainly be part of it.

voiceoffreedom Wrote:

Gareth Wrote:

voiceoffreedom Wrote:

Only if they sign a legally binding contract with the following conditions:

1. Autism Speaks may not edit any material they receive from us
2. They may not claim association with (whatever the other party in this agreement is) when promoting positions which the pro-acceptance disagrees with.
3. they may not provide descriptions or other supplemental text degrading those in the stories we give them.
4. (whatever the other party in this agreement is) has the right to suspend this agreement at any time and mandate that Autism Speaks cease circulation of stories we provide them.

In response to points made by previous posters:
1. They are NOT going to stop their hateful agenda, so don't make your expectations to high.
2. We do not have to be concerned with giving them PR ammo.  The media all but canonizes them.  Their PR is excellent among most Americans, while we are a silenced minority.

This could be i a small step toward getting our name out.  These the contract I suggested above, I would totally support this.  As for now, I vote not sure.

The point is that currently they claim to represent us while doing the opposite. This could easily allow them to point to these essays and say "hey, look - autistics themselves are represented by us on our site".

Good point. I now propose a fifth condition:

5. Autism Speaks must clearly state that our community does not believe they speak for us on a vast majority of issues.

I highly doubt they will accept it. I say bring it to the table as non-negotiable item.

You could even say "'Autism Speaks' doesn't speak for me". If they are not allowed to edit it, they will have to leave it in

Gareth Wrote:

Does anyone even know of contact details to use for this yet?

For what?

The person making the video is watching this thread.

Yeah, these concerns keep cropping up.

Whether or not they are two-faced is something I don't know.

Moo Wrote:

Please ignore my last post, I hit send by accident mid post.

I've just watched the video, Suzanne Wright is lying!!!

She is in the defensive, she has just realised that her organisation has publically had blame been put on it. Therefore she has responded by twisting it around and pushing all responsiblity onto another person (although extreemly subbtely, it is not an outright attack).

She elects the man to organise getting together positive stories from Autistics and calls him a "roving reporter". She gives him the title in a way you would give a child a role to make him/her feel special. She is belittling this man in a cutesey way.

She gives the audience a little head shake and roles her eyes. This is to say " Geeze, this man is over reacting, feel sorry for me, be on my side" to the audience. This is to ridicule him and to mock him while gaining support. What it really means is that she knows he has hit a weak spot and she is rattled. Good on him Big Grin

To agree to work with Autism Speaks will make her laugh at our vunribility ( a nt would know she is being false). However by not agreeing she will be able to then say its not her fault she gives a biast view on Autism, we are so unreasonable. She is not expecting us to agree and once she initailly laughs she will realise she is in trouble. She cannot refuse to publish our stories since she publically said she would love to. However if they insult Autism Speaks then she has grounds to refuse to publish. We have to tread carefully around this situation and be subbtle in undermining her.

You have to admire nt's sickening ability to manipulate with such speed and accuracy. I find it discusting genrally in everyday life but this is beyond creulty. She knows Autistics have the weakness of difficulty in reading body language and knowing when someone is lying.

By the way, my special interest is human behviour.

Well that is an interesting way of putting it. We say no, and she will have a right to claim she cannot help being biased.

Gareth Wrote:

Again, any public contact info? There's not even mention on their website.....

I'll ask Nicolas

honestjohn Wrote:

I am confused, how and when and through whom did Autism speaks ask for written submissions? from AFF? Are there written directions as to how to go about it, rules, guidelines, a procedure? If autism speask knows anything about people - not just autistics - is that we 9I am a suppsoed NT) need step by step directions given, some details, or they won't get participants. IF they want participation from someone they have to tell people how.

Well, they approached Alex from wrongplanet to spearhead it. I will talk to Nicolas

Ok, nicolas posted this on WP

Hello all.

Just thought I'd share some updates on this whole topic.

First, I met this week with two advisors in non-prfit organization and fund-raising about helping me put this whole thing together. After reading everyone's concerns, I wanted to make sure to do these completely outside of AutismSpeaks's purview. We had a long dinner and talked about the specifics of getting some rcognizable names on-board and for how to get some attention to them on a national level.

Second, amusingly enough, I called the office of Special Projects at AutismSpeaks to follow up with them about issues such as "no right to re-edit" etc. The lady didn't call me back. A week later I called again. No response. I made a third call. Still nothing. I am going to try again by email this week.

I suppose she might just be very busy, but it looks more and more like the offer was completely insincere. I wonder what the best way to make THAT fact known might be...?

Nicolas also sent me this message when I sent him the questions you asked

Autism Speaks has not only not provided a means for submission on their site, they are not responding to phone calls or emails about the topic now! I'm more than a little peeved.

I still plan on doing the videos independent from their organization, but may need some time to set it up.

My direct email is nicho@chipchair.com. People can submit to me there for the time being if they are interested in being part of the project. Just note, submitting does not mean someone WILL be part of it. My goal is to get stories from all across the spectrum and across the country (possibly the globe..?). And selection will probably not begin for a couple of months.

But by all means, share them. In fact, I encourage people who want to share their stories to start a thread on Autism Speaks' message board as well mentioning the project and why it is happening without that group.

Nicholas

PS Thanks for following up with me and collecting those questions

M Wrote:

I would not support Autism Speaks for this reason:   their primary objective is to "eliminate autism".  There is no point of autistics compromising with them.  If a few of the CAN people changed it would really be of no help since there would still be the people there working against us.  People who do change their mind can quit CAN and form another organization that does support people with autism.

I am really tired of "cultist" charities doing soft sell campaigns that try to disguise their true objectives so they can seem appealing to a wider range of the public.  I take great pleasure in exposing these "sham" charities to people and pointing out to people, using the charities own websites more than often, that their money is really not being used for the causes that people think they are.

People go on these walks and tell me they are "doing it for kids with autism".  Most of them have never read the charities annual report or even their website.  Some that do are so "emotionally involved" with the cause, they can't think logically.     That is not my problem.  I just present the facts.  When they try to get help for their child or adult family member with autism and are told "they should have never been born.  There are methods to prevent this"  -- am I supposed to say "told you so"?

Yeah I do notice that most of AS' money disappears inside AS.